文档介绍：ECHELON:
PART TWO:
THE NSA'S GLOBAL WORK
By Patrick S. Poole
Excerpts from Nexus Magazine Oct/Nov 1999
The US National Security Agency uses the ECHELON system not only for
surveillance of civilians and politicians,
but also for spying on behalf of US corporations.
A fundamental foundation of free societies is that when controversies arise over the assumption of power by the
state, power never defaults to the government, nor are powers granted without an extraordinary, explicit and
compelling public interest. As the late United States Supreme Court Justice William Brennan pointed out:
The concept of military necessity is seductively broad and has a dangerous plasticity. Because they invariably have the visage of
overriding importance, there is always a temptation to invoke security "necessities" to justify an encroachment upon civil liberties.
For that reason, the military-security argument must be approached with a healthy scepticism: its very gravity counsels that courts
be cautious when military necessity is invoked by the Government to justify a trespass on [Constitutional] rights.
Despite the necessity of confronting terrorism and the many benefits that are provided by the massive surveillance efforts
embodied by ECHELON, there is a dark and dangerous side of these activities that is concealed by the cloak of secrecy
surrounding the intelligence operations of the United States.
The discovery of domestic surveillance targeting American civilians for reasons of "unpopular" political affiliation or for no
probable cause at all - in violation of the First, Fourth and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution - is regularly impeded by very
elaborate plex legal arguments and privilege claims by the intelligence agencies and the US Government. The guardians
and caretakers of our liberties - our duly elected political representatives - give scarce attention to the activities, let alone the
abuses, that occur under their watch. As pointed out b